President Donald Trump’s attempt to create U.S. jobs by taxing solar panel imports could backfire.
That’s according to the CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, who says it’s domestic workers that will feel the pain.
“We have been the fastest growing form of new energy...and this is putting the brakes on that crazy growth,” Abigail Ross Hopper told Cheddar in an interview. “These are not people who are looking for what nationality the company they work for is. They just want to feed their families and pay their mortgages. And those are the people whose jobs are at risk.”
Earlier this week President Trump signed a law that would impose a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panel and sells, a move the administration says will encourage domestic manufacturing.
But the SEIA says the vast majority of the 260,000 Americans employed in the industry work in peripheral industries like installation. Ross Hopper says the bill will result in 23,000 layoffs this year and delay or cancel billions of dollars of investment in the sector.
She also says it might dissuade U.S. consumers from going green.
“Most [businesses and consumers] want to choose solar because it saves them money,” she said. “This decision changes that calculus.”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/solar-power-in-america).
The U.S. military said a Russian warplane struck the propeller of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, causing America forces to bring the unmanned aircraft down in international waters.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing the nation's first-ever drinking water standard around polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or "forever chemicals."
President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that will ramp up the number of background checks conducted before gun sales.
A pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, former Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder, has died at the age of 82.
Illinois will become one of three states to require employers to offer paid time off for any reason.
Roku was among those businesses impacted by the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, having around 26 percent of its cash and cash equivalents deposited at the bank.
Depositors withdrew savings, and investors broadly sold off bank shares as the federal government raced to reassure Americans that the banking system is secure following two bank failures.
The Biden administration is approving the major Willow oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope.
Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is expected to testify Monday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on the former president’s behalf.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping was awarded a third five-year term as the nation's president Friday, putting him on track to stay in power for life.
